A Halifax pediatrician has lost his medical licence after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia said Friday.
In its decision, the college said Dr. William Vitale’s licence has been formally revoked after the doctor consented to the revocation last month.
Vitale, 75, has had his licence suspended since he was arrested and charged with child pornography offences in February 2016. The arrest, in which computer equipment was seized from a Halifax-area home, followed a month-long investigation by the Internet Child Exploitation Unit of the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division.
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In written submissions to the college’s hearing committee, Vitale’s lawyer said no illicit pornographic materials were found on the pediatrician’s office computers and there is no suggestion that his patients were involved in the crimes.
The lawyer also said there’s no evidence of distribution of illicit materials and “most” of the material consisted of fictional text, drawings and hand-drawn and computer animated anime.
The college’s lawyer did not disagree with any of these assertions, according to the decision.
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Vitale pleaded guilty to two summary conviction offences relating to possession of child pornography in September and is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2019, the college said, noting that he had initially faced a number of other charges that were later withdrawn.
The doctor has had a licence to practise medicine in Nova Scotia since 1983 and formerly carried on a family practice in Halifax.
In December 2013, health officials suspended Vitale’s medical licence after he was accused of improperly mixing vaccinations for about 500 toddlers.
And in May 2015, Vitale was reprimanded for prescribing medication for a family member while that relative was under the care of other health professionals.
At the time, the college’s investigations committee acknowledged “difficult personal factors,” and that other treating health professionals were unavailable at the time.